Quillette Podcast

Host Jonathan Kay talks to long-time New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier about ‘Liberties,’ the ambitious literary journal he founded after getting Me-Too’d—and many other subjects besides, including the future of journalism, the innocence of Woody Allen, the allure of jazz music, and Nicolas Cage’s underrated cinematic masterpiece, 'Gone In 60 Seconds' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette's Jonathan Kay speaks to eminent French sociologist Nathalie Heinich, founder of a new organization that opposes the spread of America's race-fixated academic movements into French campuses. While many conservatives have traditionally complained about the excesses of "French theory," Prof. Heinich argues, many harmful ideas are now crossing the Atlantic in the opposite direction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette’s Jonathan Kay talks to Brian Amerige—a former team leader at Facebook, and now the CEO of Thoughtful—about the content-moderation lessons he’s learned from established social-media giants, and how we can create something better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette’s Jonathan Kay speaks with Bill Ottman, co-founder of the Minds social-media network, about the challenges facing Silicon Valley communications giants Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Columbia University professor and Atlantic Magazine writer John McWhorter speaks with political satirist and TV presenter Josh Szeps about the transformation of radicalized progressive politics into a religious-style belief system Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Kay speaks with Cheri Jacobus, a veteran Republican Party worker and conservative media figure who was mobbed and deplatformed after she called out Donald Trump for his abusive rhetoric and dubious campaign tactics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Kay speaks to Philippe Lemoine about problematic assumptions embedded in the models used to support COVID lockdown policy. Yes, separating people helps reduce virus transmission and saves lives. But forced isolation also can generate serious (and often life-threatening) risks. Moreover, how much of the beneficial effects attributed to lockdowns are the result of disease-avoidant behaviours that most of us would engage in anyway? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of New Mexico social psychologist Tania Reynolds speaks with Jonathan Kay about Nature Communications' questionable decision to retract a controversial article, the intrusion of ideology into scholarship about academic mentorship, and the principles of evolutionary biology that may affect female professional relationships Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Kay talks to colleague Toby Young about the fine line between journalism and activism, the politics of censorship, and his start-up year at the Free Speech Union Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the conservative movement enters a period of post-Trump flux, American Compass CEO Oren Cass explains to Quillette's Jonathan Kay why a right-leaning coalition with organized labor now makes sense Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yale Sociologist and Physician Nicholas Christakis speaks to Quillette’s Jonathan Kay about the origins of COVID-19, how it compares to Bubonic plague and Spanish Flu, and the way it will shape the future of our societies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Kay speaks to famed Middle Eastern historian Benny Morris, whose latest book explores the ethnic cleansing of Turkey during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Kay speaks to Wall Street Journal contributor Abigail Shrier about the epidemic of teenage girls seeking gender reassignment, the backlash against her book—and the backlash against the backlash Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Kay speaks to public health expert David Paltiel about how mass vaccination could help end the COVID-19 pandemic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Shelby Steele speaks to Quillette’s Jonathan Kay about white guilt, the ‘poetic truth’ of Ferguson, the dead end of racial grievances, and the creative process of working with his son Eli Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad Polumbo speaks to Quillette’s Jonathan Kay about life as a gay conservative journalist in Washington, D.C., the politics of outing Republican lawmakers, the complex political tensions between LGB and T, and the new journalistic climate that he expects will emerge under Joe Biden. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeffrey Flier—physician, endocrinologist, researcher, and 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University—speaks to Quillette’s Jonathan Kay about Pfizer’s recent announcement that its candidate COVID-19 vaccine was shown to be more than 90% effective in preliminary testing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While Trump’s hopes of a second Presidential term seem to be vanishing, his surprisingly strong showing among Black, Hispanic, Muslim, and Asian voters is challenging the progressive claim that Trump's appeal is rooted primarily in racism. Quillette’s Jonathan Kay discusses these surprising election results with author and journalist Jamil Jivani. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A whistleblower at an elite Massachusetts women’s college talks to Jonathan Kay about how a single 2018 incident on campus unleashed public-shaming measures that targeted the school’s lowest-paid workers—all in the name of social justice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick Ross, executive director of the Cult Education Institute, speaks with Jonathan Kay about infamous cult leader (and now convicted felon) Keith Raniere, who spent 14 years suing Ross for telling the truth about NXIVM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Literary superstar Lionel Shriver shares her thoughts about the pandemic, the rush to embrace Covid orthodoxy by politicians and scientists and the suppression of dissenting voices by big tech and the mainstream media, including hers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Kay speaks with Stanford University student and autism activist Lucy Kross Wallace about her former life as a militant social-justice activist—and what she learned about a movement that she now describes as a “cult.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Kay talks to writer Asra Nomani about the campaign to end race-neutral admissions testing at Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia, America’s best public high school—and the disturbing attacks on Asian academic “culture” that have accompanied it Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette Editor Jonathan Kay talks to Stuart Buck about how the rapid pace of COVID-19 science has exposed longstanding problems with the methods we use to validate scientific research Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette Editor Jonathan Kay talks to concert cellist Daniel Lelchuk about the timeless, global appeal of Beethoven—and the turbulent historical world that inspired the great German composer’s works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette Editor Jonathan Kay talks to economist-turned-author Jeff Rubin about his new book, The Expendables How the Middle Class Got Screwed By Globalization—and the devastating consequences of globalization that many progressive thinkers seem reluctant to talk about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette Editor Jonathan Kay talks to scientist and author Dr Debra Soh about the misinformation being peddled to young people about biological sex and transition—and the most humane ways to help people who experience gender dysphoria. Debra has just published The End of Gender. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette Editor-in-Chief Claire Lehmann talks to Think Inc Founder Suzi Jamil about the rewards and challenges of bringing the world’s greatest thinkers to Sydney—and their new collaboration, Free Thought Live. You can reserve a spot at their first joint event on September 26th—in which the political satirist and television presenter Josh Szeps interviews Professor John McWhorter—here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette Editor-in-Chief Claire Lehmann talks to Dr Tanveer Ahmed about how we should accept the presence of shame in our lives without succumbing to despair or outrage mobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tech entrepreneur Chris Best talks about Substack, his self-publishing platform that is attracting journalists like Andrew Sullivan, Jesse Singal and Jen Gerson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Douglas Murray talks about the new Afterword to The Madness of Crowds, his best-selling book about identity politics, and the events of the last six months which have accelerated the toxic trends he warned about Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trans Pioneer Buck Angel on the afterlife of a porn actor, his campaign for LGBT rights, and the reality of biological sex Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Rufo, Director of the Center on Wealth & Poverty at Discovery Institute, talks to Jonathan Kay about the ideology fuelling the violent protests in Seattle and Portland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yoram Hazony, author of The Virtue of Nationalism, talks about the why liberal institutions like the New York Times have proved so vulnerable to capture by the hard Left. He wrote about this recently for Quillette. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Cohen, a university fundraiser, talks about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, its impact on MIT, and Ronan Farrow’s flawed reporting. He recently wrote about all of the above for Quillette. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette Managing Editor Colin Wright explains why scientists no longer always feel free to speak up in the face of pseudoscience, and why he gave up his hunt for a job as a professor in the field of evolutionary biology for a career in journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette contributor and Cambridge PhD student Rob Henderson talks to Toby Young about how cancel culture became one of America's most successful exports and why upper middle class whites have embraced the woke agenda. Rob recently wrote a piece for Quillette entitled America Exports Cancel Culture to the World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canadian comedian Ryan Long talks to Jonathan Kay about the nature of comedy in the current political climate. Ryan Long's skit "When Wokes and Racists Actually Agree on Everything" has recently gone viral. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Editor-in-Chief Claire Lehmann talks to Jonathan Kay about how and why she created Quillette, and her plans for its future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Shellenberger, President of Environmental Progress, talks to Jonathan Kay about global warming, natural disasters, media scaremongering—and why the world is actually getting safer, notwithstanding the scaremongering of Extinction Rebellion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Renowned physicist Lawrence Krauss talks to Jonathan Kay about his Quillette essay Racism Is Real. But Science Isn’t the Problem and explains why he expressed skepticism about the sincerity of the #strike4blacklives campaign supported by so many science organisations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Eric Kaufmann talks to Toby Young about his Quillette essay The Great Awakening and the Second American Revolution. He believes American may be going through something akin to China's Cultural Revolution in which many aspects of American society, from the constitution to the name of the country, could change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette contributor Helen Joyce talks to Jonathan Kay about the many ways in which gender ideologues have tied themselves in knots by trying to make the sisterhood more "inclusive". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joel Kotkin, executive director of the Urban Reform Institute and author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, talks to Toby Young about the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on American cities and the rioting that broke out following the death of George Floyd. Joel recently wrote about this in a piece entitled Pandemics and Pandemonium for Quillette. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glenn Loury, a professor of economics at Brown University, talks to Jonathan Kay about the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd. Professor Loury recently published a piece about this in Quillette entitled 'Condemn the Violence Without Equivocation.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Bush speech writer David From talks to Jonathan Kay about the damage done by the Trump presidency and the way forward for America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer and Journalist Cathy Young talks to Jonathan Kay about her investigations into Tara Reade’s evolving accusations against Joe Biden, and explains why the ranks of Reade’s supporters are shrinking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thomas Hale, Associate Professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, talks to Jonathan Kay about a new research project aimed at comparing international policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Lloyd, co-founder of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford, talks to Toby Young about the geopolitical fall-out from the coronavirus crisis. Will the Conservatives win the next UK election? Can the EU recover its authority? And is this China's Chernobyl? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Abbasi, associate managing editor at the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), talks to Jonathan Kay about new COVID-19 antibody tests that may help stop the pandemic and save the lives of those who are already infected. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices